"I know that there is no shortage of buffalo here with producers willing to supply that market or any market," he said.

Mr Brosnan says the animal welfare and health guidelines were discussed with a recent delegation to Darwin from Vietnam.

"The Northern Territory Government has recently hosted the chairman of the Board of Livestock Services.

"We can say that at that meeting we discussed and put a proposal forward around some slight changes to the cattle health protocol to include buffalo on it, and they seem very receptive to that," he said.

At the end of April, 5,600 head of cattle had been shipped from the Darwin Port to Vietnam for 2013.